There are plenty of great words to be used to describe my mom. One word I can definitely use is wise. She is a wise woman.
Growing up she had several sayings that she repeated to us all the time. It seems like she said them every day. But they stuck. They stuck because she was consistent and she repeated it enough times that we got sick of hearing it! At the time, it may have frustrated us to hear the same phrase over and over but years later we are repeating those phrases ourselves.
She did something else too. This may be the reason the sayings had the most impact. She modeled them. Her actions were consistent with the sayings. That made it really go deep with us.
“Sometimes you got to do things you don’t want to do.”
That is one of them. Seems pretty basic. It is easy to hear that and think “Duh, of course.” But I reflect on it and say it to myself so often. We all want to just do the things we want to do in life. It seems like just doing the things we want to do would lead to a fun life. It is a lie. That is the wisdom in the statement.
It is a sign of maturity. A wise person understands that the path to a great life is paved with having to do things we don’t want to do or feel like doing at first. They are the right things that we are glad we did afterwards.
The other path is always doing everything we want. It is a dangerous path. Just take a look at others who seem to have tried that path. Early on it seems like maybe they are on the right one. They seem to be living the great life full of endless pleasure but give it a little time. The path leads to misery. This is what the wise person knows.
So it is a phrase worth repeating. Maybe it can keep us from trying to take the easy road that leads to nowhere.
“Sometimes you got to do things you don’t want to do.”
Rich Florence 